OK Bill,
Here is a picture.
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d178/orvet/paring.jpg
The top knife is a work-in-progress, a partly completed re-handle on a Sharpfinger. I have a lot left to do with the blade yet. I probably should have done most of it first, but it is hard to work with a real sharp blade (trust me, I know, as the paring knives come very sharp).
The Sharpfinger is re-handled with Babinga, an African hard wood.
The second knife down is a serpentine handle paring knife with Cocobolo wood handle. The blade is a #SS600 from Jantz Supply.
The rest of the paring knives are #SS827 also from Jantz Supply, the only difference is the wood on the handles.
The woods are as follows:
Third knife- Blood Wood
Forth knife- Red Heart
Fifth knife- Lace Wood (I think from South America)
Sixth knives- Wenge (I believe it comes from Africa)
Seventh knife- I lost track, but I think it is also Wenge.
Eight knife- Zebra Wood (also from Africa as I recall).
It was a real education in wood when I started this project. Some are very hard, but fun to work with. The wood can be quite expensive if you just go down to your local exotic wood store and buy it by the board foot, some as high as $35.00 b/f or more. My way around that, being of thrifty Scots ancestry, (i.e.- cheap old fart), is to buy the scrap wood. The scrap is sold by the pound where I shop (Wood Craft, Portland, OR & WoodCrafters, Salem, OR) at the much more affordable rate of $3.00/lb. It often possible in the scrap to get thinner wood, as I usually don't need 1 inch thick wood. The thinner wood saves ripping the piece or sanding it down.
I am also making a set of 6 steak knives for my wife for Christmas with Cocobolo handles and I couldn't find enough decent Cocobolo scraps to do all the handles, so I purchased a piece 24"x3 1/2"x3/8" for $15.99. With careful cutting I was able to get all the handles out of that one piece.
Knife making may be a slightly less expensive hobby than collecting knives, but the difference is
EVER-SO-SLIGHT!
Knife making does necessitate frequent trips tool stores, (a favorite pastime of mine), and even better I have to
BUY tools and even
USE them which it the height of fun! That is the most fun a guy can have without a fishing pole.
The frequent forays to tool stores gives me lots of opportunity to stop at stores where knives are sold.
All in all I must say that knife making has enhanced my knife collecting!
Well, time to totter out to the work shop and work on those steak knives.
... I mean work, with any of those in the kitchen, or maybe as a neck knife.